Powerchute not showing events always...

[Anonymous user]

Hello everyone, two related questions:

1) Sometimes, although the UPS enters AVR trim mode (I hear the clicking and the upper light lights on), Powerchute does not record any event. Why is this?

2) I am trying to reinstall Powerchute on my pc (in case there was something with the installation) but the installer can't disable native operating system UPS support. Again why is that? and how can I fix it?

Operating system is windows 7 professional and the UPS is a SUA1000 bought about 5 months ago.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[Anonymous user]

Hello everyone, two related questions:

1) Sometimes, although the UPS enters AVR trim mode (I hear the clicking and the upper light lights on), Powerchute does not record any event. Why is this?

2) I am trying to reinstall Powerchute on my pc (in case there was something with the installation) but the installer can't disable native operating system UPS support. Again why is that? and how can I fix it?

Operating system is windows 7 professional and the UPS is a SUA1000 bought about 5 months ago.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[Erasmus_apc]

What version/type of PowerChute are you using? I would assume PowerChute Business, but assuming is bad for business. Also, how long are these AVR events that don't get logged? Very brief events (measured in seconds, not minutes) will oftentimes not be logged.

2) Can you give the exact error the installer produces, or even better a screenshot? Are you using the serial cable or USB cable for PowerChute? Windows Vista and above do not have a native serial UPS service, it only detects USB UPS' and classifies them as a "battery". Can you post a screenshot of your device manager with your communications (COM), Human Int. Devices, Batteries, and USB items expanded (use the +)? Did you reboot the computer after you uninstalled PowerChute the first time?

[Anonymous user]

Yes, it is business edition. I used 8.0.1 edition and upgraded to 8.5.1 just to have the native ups support disabled yes this edition did it although I know it is not supported by the ups. As to this issue, I use USB version for the powerchute and no error appears at the installer, nor something strange at the device manager. However, power options still display battery and AC options. Again, using 8.5.1 successfully disables native UPS support.

However, and this stands for both editions, some events are not recorded and those AVR trim events are long, even for 2-3 minutes. Not instant. Furthermore, I have noticed some strange behaviour from the UPS itself. When I raise high transfer voltage during AVR trim active event then the light turns off on the UPS. However, the powerchute reports AVR trim active still. Is this normal? I mean, the AVR trim does not turn itself off no matter if I want it?

Now that I am writing this, the ups turned the AVR trim off - also heard a click (with voltage of 254.6 volt - transfer at 257) and powerchute still refers avr trim on...

Are there internal AVR levels? I mean, "some" active avr trim that does not turn the light on and at some point forward it turns it? I am confused...

[Anonymous user]

I am not really concerned about the windows 7 native ups support. If I can use 8.5.1 with my SUA1000 and everything work OK, then I am OK also. I mean if this is something "common" and not some fault of some kind then this is not a problem for me (which I don't think it is actually, after all 8.0.1 is quite old compared to windows 7). Maybe windows 7 changed the UPS management technology to battery management (unified UPS and laptops?), and so, 8.0.1 could be trying to disable something that is not there (it is seen as a battery).

For the other matter, the AVR: To tell you the truth, I have NEVER seen an AVR trim on event without an AVR trim off event, so what starts, ends. I have tried of course to close and reopen the browser, to refresh the page (logout/login) and to check with another browser. A common event that I noticed today is that although AVR was untriggered at the UPS panel (led off), powerchute kept reporting as AVR trim mode on. HOWEVER, voltage was high (254 if I am correct, and the transfer point was set by me at 261 AFTER the AVR trim was initially triggered) and after some time when I rechecked voltage was below 246 and operation was reset to normal (and an AVR trim off event was logged). What I mean is that the logging process is not consistent with the panel of the UPS. If I am correct and according to what you have told me about the internal algorithm of the system, this is something possible...

[Erasmus_apc]

Yes, it just sounds like the delay that often happens between the time the UPS power control monitoring action is acknowledged by the communication bus, then out the serial port to the PC agent, which then has to accept and interpret the signal and then update the website. All in all I don't detect anything wrong with the way things seem to work for your UPS and PCBE.

[Erasmus_apc]

Yes, it just sounds like the delay that often happens between the time the UPS power control monitoring communicates its state to the communication bus, which then pushes it from the serial port/cable out to the agent, which then acknowledges the signal, and then has to update the website display info. Also I don't believe there are any issues, from my understanding, with the AVR behavior of the UPS itself.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Thanks Erasmus for your support and your immediate answers! I believe that you have covered every question of mine!